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Central Valley
irrigators look to
Klamath Basin for
assistance
Though
the Klamath Basin and
the San Joaquin Valley
projects and water
issues differ in size
and operations, Lynnette
Wirth, a spokeswoman
with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, said the
prospects of fallowed
fields, lost income and
an uncertain future are
the same.
The
situation led Mike Wade,
executive director of
the California Farm
Water Coalition, and
other irrigators and
community members in the
Central Valley to look
to the Klamath Basin as
an example of how to get
the
attention of the public
and lawmakers in
Washington, D.C.
They’ve
launched a Web site —
ourvalleywatercrisis.org
— as a way of
publicizing their
position. The Klamath
Basin’s 2001 Bucket
Brigade — in which
protesters used buckets
to transfer water from
Lake Ewauna to the A
Canal — inspired them to
conduct a march
originating from the
town of Mendota sometime
in April.
But unlike the
Basin, Wade said,
community members aren’t
seeking to have
representatives of
different interests meet
and work out an
agreement.
Endangered
Species Act
Instead, they
are looking for ways to
prevent the federal
Endangered Species Act
from negatively
impacting specific
groups, including
construction of a new
water conveyance
system.
Dan Keppen of
the Klamath Falls Family
Farm Alliance said that
beyond the immediate
impacts of unemployment
and food costs, the
Central Valley’s
circumstances could
bring more attention to
the Basin’s water
issues. “It could be a
wake-up call for
policymakers,” he said.
Steve Kandra, an irrigator
on the Klamath Irrigation
Project and board member of
Klamath Water Users
Association, said the
problems facing the Central
Valley aren’t exactly the
same as those impacting the
Basin. The two do have a
common theme in that the
Endangered Species Act is
affecting their ability to
use water, but the
differences in size and the
number and types of groups
affected make the problems
and the solutions more
complex in California, he
said.
“That project is
so big and complex, it makes
our problems look much more
simple,” he said.
Kandra and others
are watching the situation.
They’re interested to see
what legislative avenues the
Central Valley irrigators
pursue and if they can
succeed at having new water
storage built or in
modifying the Endangered
Species Act, actions that
could face a lot of
hurdles.
Klamath
impact
Kandra said he’s
also concerned about the
Central Valley project
directly impacting water in
the Klamath River.
The
project receives some water
currently from the Trinity
River, a tributary of the
Klamath that is routed to
the Sacramento River.
Increasing that diversion
could negatively impact
irrigation in the Basin.
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